Wealth management

The American Institute of CPAs has written to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman outlining its concerns with what it sees as a “widespread problem affecting numerous taxpayers”: erroneous letters from the IRS to taxpayers filing foreign trust forms.

The Internal Revenue Service has stepped up its efforts to investigate possible misconduct in the municipal bond sector, more than doubling the number of examinations it conducts per year.

Almost half of parents have no financial plan in place, and nearly 20 percent of parents created a plan only after having children, according to a new poll.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, have used sophisticated estate- planning techniques for more than a decade to minimize taxes and amass at least $100 million for their family outside of their estate.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s board of directors assigned former KPMG International Chairman Timothy Flynn to its risk committee after an internal probe blamed lax controls for a $5.8 billion trading loss in London.

Our 2012 Wealth Magnets are talking to their financial planning clients more than ever.

The focus of most taxpayers on their income taxes, small business taxes and potential estate taxes, with a gripe now and then about local sales taxes, misses a big chunk of the portion they pay every year: property taxes.

A new report from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board indicates that auditing firms have apparently ignored or forgotten the lessons that came out of the Bernard Madoff scandal and similar financial frauds of recent years.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a new draft version of Form 706, the Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return.

Employers in a recent survey overwhelmingly said they favor keeping workers past retirement age.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has written a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urging the recently established agency to create a ratings system for financial certifications and designations.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is paying nearly $50,000 to a whistleblower who helped prevent a multimillion-dollar securities fraud, in the first award paid under a new whistleblower program.

Small business-focused cloud accounting software provider Wave Accounting has acquired online stock research and investment tracking company Vuro.co.

New consulting program will help CPA firms see if wealth management is right for them.

As sales of exchange-traded funds boom, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has released an investor bulletin on the investment vehicle that highlights the view that not all ETFs are created equal.

Genworth Financial Trust Company announced a new program to help independent financial advisors find the trust companies best suited to working with them.

The estimated 72 million 401(k) participants have something to look forward to at the end of this month: On August 30, the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration participant fee disclosure rule, dubbed ERISA 404(a)(5), will go into effect.

About 35 percent of women report using a financial advisor and another 35 percent who don't use an advisor would consider doing so, according to a new survey from Prudential Financial.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced fraud charges and an emergency asset freeze against a Denver-based company and two Colorado residents for allegedly carrying out a $15.7 million Ponzi scheme that dragged in more than 120 investors nationwide.

Information technology spending by the global wealth management industry will reach almost $35 billion by 2016, and will include heavy investment in digital channels, predicts global analyst provider Ovum.